Yasmin Walker
This afternoon Liz Truss resigned as prime minister, with plans of finding a new Conservative leader within the week.
The resignation came unsurprisingly, with Conservative MPs pressuring Truss to go after a series of U-turns on economic policy, the sacking of her Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, and the resignation of Home Secretary, Suella Braverman
Truss got the job after winning a conservative leadership battle against Rishi Sunak back in September, voted for by Conservative Party members, where she pledged to cut taxes and boost the economy.
However, only 44 days later, Truss gave a short speech outside downing street, saying “I came into office at a time of great economic and international stability. Families and businesses were worried about how to pay their bills”
“I was elected by the Conservative Party with a mandate to change this.”
However, Truss went on to say, “I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected.”
There was speculation of resignation after Sir Graham Brady, chair of The 1922 Committee, was spotted entering Downing Street for an unplanned meeting earlier today. However, some were expecting Truss to cling onto until at least 31st October to see through the economic fiscal plan.
Now we know, in this meeting between Truss and Brady, her resignation was settled and they “agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week”, with Truss remaining in office until a new leader is chosen.
What happens next?
The logistics of how the next leadership race will be concluded by the 28th of October are still somewhat unknown. Despite this, Sir Graham Brady has said MPs can nominate a potential leader, and they will need to meet a threshold of 100. This means a potential of three candidates coming forward.
Potential popular candidates include: leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mourdant, Ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, and there is even talk of Boris Johnson being reinstated.
There are clearly deep divisions amongst Conservative MPs, but only time will tell how far the new leader can go to unite the party, before an inevitable general election.
Featured image courtesy of Jordhan Madec on Unsplash. Image license can be found here. No changes have been made to this image.
Yasmin Walker
Hi, I'm Yasmin! I'm 20 and study politics at the University of Leeds. I'm very interested in current affairs and hope to one day be a political journalist.